Thelma Pearl Crenshaw Sparkman

Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday in Memorial Park Funeral Home. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Arrangements are by Memorial Park Funeral Home, 6969 E. Interstate 40.

Thelma, a lifelong Texan reared in Paradise, moved to the Texas Panhandle as a young adult, where she remained for more than 60 years. In 1951, she established her home in Fritch, where she was a founder of Immanuel Baptist Church. In 1959, Fritch hired her as its first city secretary/tax assessor-collector, a position she held through the mid-1970s.

As a lifetime member of National Parent Teacher Association, Thelma contributed significantly to the development of Sanford-Fritch Independent School District. More recently, she lived in Amarillo, Fort Worth and Corpus Christi. Among her many other talents, she was a seamstress, ceramist and storyteller.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Glenn; a sister, Audrey Fay Haddock Moreland and her husband, George; her mother, Bertha Irene Kelly Crenshaw; and her father, Marcus Napolean Crenshaw.

Survivors include a daughter, Karon K. Connelly of Corpus Christi; two sons, Weldon Holley and wife Sandra of Pampa and Charles Holley of Corpus Christi; two sister, Betty Rambo and husband William of Jacksonville and Wanda McDaniel and husband Keith of Fort Worth. Thelma’s legacy spans children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews, nieces, cousins and friends; each of whom held a special place in her heart.